I had meant to write about these races a few weeks ago, but I didn’t get around to it right away, and then I got hurt and couldn’t ride for a week, and once that happened, I just couldn’t motivate myself to write about racing when I couldn’t even ride my bike. It was just too depressing. Anyway, I’m getting better slowly, although I’m certainly not 100% yet. I skipped the Concord Crit and Central NH Road Race this weekend, hoping that a weekend away from racing would help speed my recovery; we’ll see what happens this week.

Now, before I write anything else, you should watch this video, which, shows, embarrassingly, my greatest moment since upgrading to the Cat 3’s.

The Attleboro Crit is a 50 lap/50-k crit that’s become a real favorite of mine. In the cat 3 field, the race is long enough that it doesn’t go out insanely fast, which helps in the early surge where I sometimes struggle. The course features a very modest climb, which keeps things together, and a nice long descent on the backstretch, which allows for a little bit of mid-lap recovery if you’re hurting. So I’ve had reasonably good luck in Attleboro, which, normally serves as kind of a warm-up for the Working Man’s Stage Race. This year, however, Attleboro followed WMSR, so I figured I should go for broke and try to pull something off if I could.

The day was nice, if a little hot, and I got a decent spot on the line, so I had no trouble going along with the early surges that happened in the first few laps. Once things calmed down, I tried to stay alert for opportunities to make a move, because the race was big enough and the finishing straight long enough that I knew that there wouldn’t be much hope for me if it came down to a big sprint finish at the end of the race. So I hung in, tried to stay relaxed, and waited for an opportunity.

Finally, coming into the finish with about 15 laps to go, I saw a guy moving up fast on the right side of the group, without anybody making a move to stop him or prevent his escape. So jumped on his wheel and went with him as he attacked, and we were able to get clear of the group fast. One other rider was a little further up the road, and I thought that if we could get his wheel, we’d have a shot at getting away. The other guy and I traded pulls for a couple of laps, but just couldn’t close down the gap to the leader. The pack, content to let us wear ourselves out, finally decided we had been on our own for long enough and swallowed us up after about 3 laps. Exhausted, I hid in the back for a while, before trying to move up for the final sprint. Unfortunately, I got caught behind a crash with less than 2 to go and had to come to a full stop to avoid hitting the downed riders. So I got dropped and finished about 30 second back. I ended up 30th of 47 starters. (Full results.)

So a good race had a bad result. But I’m still happy to have been able to make a move, even if it didn’t work. Hopefully that was not my last.

Attleboro was the cap on a week of racing at the Working Man’s Stage Race, which is a relatively low key stage race run in the evenings out of Amesbury, MA. It features a 6.6-mile (slightly shorter this year) time trial, a 44-mile road race, and a crazy points race on a 1/4-mile stock car racetrack, run at night, under the lights.

So time-trials aren’t really my specialty, although I’m getting better at them, and I figured I’d just do what I could without killing myself. The race was a 2/3 combined race, and some of the 2’s in the field were fast enough that I really didn’t have much chance to win. I knew, best case scenario, was that I would be working on behalf of a teammate for the rest of the race anyhow. So I went out and rode hard, but not exceptionally hard, and managed 25th of 31, with a time of 15:15, so an average speed somewhere between 24-25 mph. That’s quite a bit faster than I went last year, so I was happy. Many people had full TT bikes, with disc wheels, special aerobars, and ultra-aero frames. I had my regular road bike with a set of $50 clip on aerobars that I’ve used three times. (Someday, if I every got a TT bike, I’d probably be a pretty decent time-trialist.) So I was happy, but not thrilled, with the results.

Wendesday featured a road race on a pretty nice little 8.5-mile loop that goes up into New Hampshire and back over one very modest climb. It was very cloudy and rain seemed imminent, but it held off as we rolled off the line and out onto the course. Almost immediately, I dropped my chain and found myself chasing. Not a good omen, but I got myself back into the bunch and all was well. (One of the tricky things about this race is that there’s no support vehicle, so if you have a problem, you’re on your own, possibly walking back to the start if things go especially badly.)

The first laps were uneventful. I saw some guys struggling, and made sure to stay ahead of them so as to avoid getting dropped when they got gapped by the group. That’s happened to me too many times this season, and I can’t take it happening again. I managed this, and was happy. I tried to contribute to the team effort wherever possible, but really didn’t manage to do all that much. Finally, going into the last lap, it started to pour. I mean, seriously pour, with deep water pooling on the roads. I couldn’t see, I was soaked, and, lucky me, I dropped my chain again. So all I could do was try to hang on for the finish. Which I did. Barely. Finished 23rd, well out of contention, just happy to be able to avoid complete disaster.

Day three, a race that I’ve never liked, got cancelled due to torrential rain and an oily track (hooray!) so we didn’t have to ride. Because it was impossible to secure the track any other time, the race organizers simply finalized the results after two days. I ended up 25/31. Not great, but I had a solid ride in a decently strong field. And I was glad to have an extra day to recover for Attleboro. Nonetheless, I resolved to do my best to make an attempt to start winning some races before the season ends. (Full Results.)

Unfortunately, because I’ve been hurt, time is running out. There’s just two weekends before we head to Dublin for a meeting and few days of vacation. Then it’s September, and there will be a mix of road and cross for a few weeks, then full-time cross. I’m feeling good about my cross prospects, at least. And I got some nice new wheels to race on. I’m ordering tires this week, so, hopefully, I’ll be on the cross bike before the month is out. Where did the summer go?